14 PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES

2 ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES

Most of the substances that we are familiar with from

everyday life are mixtures. For example, the air that we
breathe is a mixture containing elements such as nitrogen
and oxygen, and compounds such as carbon dioxide and
nitrogen oxides. The food that we eat and the drinks that we
drink are mixtures. This chapter looks at the properties of
elements, compounds and mixtures, and also how to separate
the components of a mixture. Separation of mixtures is very
important in the analysis of substances, such as in forensics.

▲ Figure 2.1 Gold is an element, ▲ Figure 2.2 Pure water is a

but a gold ring made from compound, but the water
18-carat gold only contains 75% we drink is a mixture of
gold. The metal is a mixture of water and other dissolved
gold and, usually, copper. substances.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

◼ Understand how to classify a substance as an element, ◼ Understand how a chromatogram provides

compound or mixture. information about the composition of a mixture.
◼ Understand that a pure substance has a fixed melting ◼ Understand how to use the calculation of Rf values to
and boiling point, but that a mixture may melt or boil identify the components of a mixture.
over a range of temperatures.
◼ Practical: Investigate paper chromatography using
◼ Describe these experimental techniques for the inks/food colourings.
separation of mixtures:
◼ simple distillation ◼ fractional distillation
◼ filtration ◼ crystallisation
◼ paper chromatography.

REMINDER
You might want to look at Chapter 3 ELEMENTS
if you do not already know the term
'atom'. Elements are substances that can’t be split into anything simpler by chemical
means. An element contains only one type of atom (but see the key point in the
KEY POINT margin). In models or diagrams they are shown as atoms of a single colour or size.
It isn’t completely true to say that
elements consist of only one type of
atom. A better way of saying it would
be that all the atoms in an element
have the same atomic number. Most
elements consist of mixtures of
isotopes, which have the same atomic
number, but different mass numbers
(due to different numbers of neutrons).
When we draw diagrams or make a pure metal oxygen gas diamond (a form of carbon)
models, we aren’t usually interested in such as magnesium
the differences between the isotopes.
Isotopes will be discussed in Chapter 3.
▲ Figure 2.3 Elements contain only one type of atom.
PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES 15

There are 118 elements and these are shown in the Periodic Table. Most of the
elements occur naturally, such as hydrogen, helium and sulfur. Some others
have to be made artificially, such as einsteinium.

COMPOUNDS
Compounds are formed when two or more elements chemically combine.
The elements always combine in fixed proportions. For example, hydrogen
and fluorine always combine to form hydrogen fluoride, with formula HF,
whereas magnesium and fluorine always combine to form magnesium fluoride,
with formula MgF2 – the elements must combine in these ratios. Examples of
other compounds are carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Diagrams of
compounds show more than one type of atom bonded together.

water silicon dioxide sodium chloride

▲ Figure 2.4 Some compounds

MIXTURES
In a mixture, the various substances are mixed together and no chemical
reaction occurs. Mixtures can be made from elements and/or compounds.
The various components can be in any proportion, for example you can put
any amount of sugar into your cup of tea or coffee (until it becomes saturated).

mixture of elements – mixture of compounds – mixture of an element with

nitrogen and oxygen carbon dioxide and a compound – carbon dioxide
water (vapour) and nitrogen
▲ Figure 2.5 Some mixtures

SIMPLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MIXTURES AND COMPOUNDS

PROPORTIONS In water (a compound), every single water molecule has two hydrogen atoms
combined with one oxygen atom. It never varies. In a mixture of hydrogen and
oxygen gases, the two could be mixed together in any proportion.
If you had some iron metal and some sulfur, you could mix them in any
proportion you wanted to. In iron sulfide (FeS), a compound, the proportion of
iron to sulfur is always exactly the same.
16 PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES

PROPERTIES In a mixture of elements, each element keeps its own properties, but the
properties of the compound are quite different. For example, in a mixture of iron
REMINDER and sulfur, the iron is grey and the sulfur is yellow. The iron reacts with dilute acids
You can find out about the reactions such as hydrochloric acid to produce hydrogen; the sulfur doesn’t react with the
of metals with dilute acids on pages acid. However, the compound iron sulfide (FeS) reacts quite differently with acids
174–175. The reaction between iron to produce poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas, which smells of bad eggs.
sulfide and acids isn’t needed for exam A mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is a colourless gas which explodes when
purposes at International GCSE. you put a flame to it. The compound, water, is a colourless liquid which just
puts out a flame.

EASE OF SEPARATION Mixtures can be separated by physical means. Physical means are things like
changing the temperature or dissolving part of the mixture in a solvent such as
water; in other words, methods that don’t involve any chemical reactions.
For example, a mixture of iron and sulfur is quite easy to separate into the two
elements using a magnet. The iron sticks to the magnet and the sulfur doesn’t.
The elements in a compound cannot be separated by physical means. To convert
iron sulfide into separate samples of iron and sulfur requires chemical reactions.
You can cool a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gases to separate it by
a physical process. Oxygen condenses into a liquid at a much higher
temperature than hydrogen (–183 °C as opposed to –253 °C). This would leave
you with liquid oxygen and hydrogen gas, which are easy to separate. But to
separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, you have to change it chemically
using electrolysis. Electrolysis is explained in Chapter 10.

MELTING POINT AND BOILING POINT

Pure substances, such as elements and pure compounds, melt and boil at
fixed temperatures. For example, the melting point of water is 0 °C and the
boiling point 100 °C. However, mixtures usually melt or boil over a range of
temperatures.
KEY POINT The presence of impurities lowers the melting point of a substance and raises
A mixture is not a pure substance. the boiling point. For instance, dissolving 10 g of common (table) salt (sodium
If a sample contains only a small chloride) in 1 litre of water lowers the melting point to about –0.6 °C and raises
amount of an unwanted substance, the the boiling point to about 100.2 °C.
unwanted substance might be called The melting point can be very useful in determining whether or not a
an impurity. substance is pure. If you continue to study chemistry you might carry out a
practical experiment to make some aspirin. In order to determine whether your
sample is pure or not you can measure the melting point. You would record the
temperature at which your sample starts to melt, and then you would record
the temperature at which it has fully melted to completely form a liquid. Aspirin
is a white powder that melts at 138 °C. If the melting point of the sample you
made is 128–134 °C you can see that it is quite impure because it melts over a
wide range of temperature (below the melting point of pure aspirin).

SEPARATION OF MIXTURES
Separating mixtures is extremely important in chemistry. For example, we can
see this in the processing of crude oil, in producing fresh water from salt water
and in the enrichment of uranium. In forensic science, the components of a
mixture usually have to be separated before they can be analysed.
 PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES 17

FILTRATION Filtration can be used to separate a solid from a liquid.

funnel For example, sand can be separated from water by filtration. The apparatus for
filter paper filtration is shown in Figure 2.6.
sand
(residue)
The substance left in the filter paper is called the residue and the liquid that
comes through is called the filtrate.
beaker Filtration can also be used to separate two solids from each other if only one of
water them is soluble in water (see below – rock salt).
(filtrate)

▲ Figure 2.6 Filtration can be used to separate

a mixture of sand and water.

CRYSTALLISATION Crystallisation can be used to separate a solute from a solution. For

example, it could be used to separate sodium chloride from a sodium chloride
solution. The solution is heated in an evaporating basin to boil off some of
the water until an almost saturated solution is formed. This can be tested by
dipping a glass rod into the solution and seeing if crystals form quickly on
its surface when it is removed. The Bunsen burner is then turned off and the
crystals allowed to form as more water evaporates and the solution cools. The
crystals can now be removed from the mixture by filtration.
The apparatus for crystallisation is shown in Figure 2.7.
drop of solution
sampled on a
glass rod

sodium
gauze chloride
solution
tripod

heat

▲ Figure 2.7 Crystallisation can be used to separate a solute from a solution.

MAKING PURE SALT FROM We can use filtration and crystallisation to obtain pure salt from rock salt.
ROCK SALT
Rock salt consists of salt contaminated by various earthy or rocky impurities.
These impurities aren’t soluble in water.
If you crush the rock salt and mix it with hot water, the salt dissolves, but the
impurities don’t. The impurities can be filtered off, and remain on the filter
paper. The filtrate is then a salt solution. The solid salt can be obtained from
the solution by crystallisation.
This is typical of the way you can separate any mixture of two solids, one of
which is soluble in water and one of which isn’t.

▲ Figure 2.8 Rock salt

18 PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES

SIMPLE DISTILLATION Simple distillation can be used to separate the components of a solution.
Although we can use crystallisation to separate sodium chloride from a sodium
chloride solution, we can also collect the water if we use simple distillation.
The water boils and is condensed back to a liquid by the condenser. The salt
remains in the flask.

water out
side-arm
flask
condenser

sodium chloride
KEY POINT solution
Notice that water is always fed into the
gauze pure
condenser at the lower end. That way water in
it fills the condenser jacket better and if water
the flow of water stops for any reason
the condenser jacket remains full of heat
water.
▲ Figure 2.9 Distilling pure water from sodium chloride solution.
You could, of course, collect the salt from the solution as well as collecting
pure water. The sodium chloride solution eventually becomes so concentrated
that the salt will crystallise out.

FRACTIONAL DISTILLATION Fractional distillation is used to separate a mixture of liquids such as

ethanol (alcohol) and water. Ethanol and water are completely miscible with
EXTENSION WORK each other. That means you can mix them together in any proportion and they
will form a single liquid layer. You can separate them by taking advantage of
The fractionating column is often
packed with glass beads or something their different boiling points: water boils at 100 °C, ethanol at 78 °C.
similar, although the separation of
ethanol and water in the lab works thermometer
perfectly well just with an empty
column. For reasons that are beyond 78°C
International GCSE, a high surface area
in the column helps separation of the
two vapours. The ethanol produced by water out
this experiment is about 96% pure. For
complicated reasons, again beyond condenser
International GCSE, it is impossible
to remove the last 4% of water by
fractionating
distillation. column

water in

flask almost pure

ethanol

water/ethanol
mixture

gauze

heat
▲ Figure 2.10 Fractional distillation
PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES 19

Both liquids boil, but by careful heating you can control the temperature of the
column so that all the water condenses in the column and trickles back into
the flask. Only the ethanol remains as a vapour all the way to the top of the
fractionating column and out into the condenser.

PAPER CHROMATOGRAPHY Paper chromatography can be used to separate a variety of mixtures.

However, at International GCSE level we will usually use it to separate mixtures
of coloured inks or food colourings. Most inks and food colourings are not just
made up of one colour but contain a mixture of dyes.
Paper chromatography can also be used to separate a mixture of colourless
substances such as sugars, but then some method must be used to make the
spots visible on the paper.

ACTIVITY 2
! ▼ PRACTICAL: INVESTIGATING THE COMPOSITION OF DYE
Safety Note: Avoid skin contact with WITH PAPER CHROMATOGRAPHY
the solvents and dyes, especially if you
have sensitive skin. We can investigate the composition of a mixture of coloured dyes using
paper chromatography. To do this we carry out the following steps.
1. Draw a line with a pencil across a piece of chromatography paper; this
line should be about 1 cm from the bottom of the paper. Do not use a
pen as the colours in the ink may move up the chromatography paper
with the solvent.
2. Put a spot (use a teat pipette or a capillary tube) of the mixture of dyes
on the pencil line and allow it to dry.
3. Suspend the chromatography paper in a beaker that contains a small
amount of solvent so that the bottom of the paper goes into the
solvent. It is important that the solvent is below the pencil line so that
the inks/colourings don’t just dissolve in the solvent.
4. Put a lid (such as a watch glass) on the beaker so that the atmosphere
becomes saturated with the solvent. This is to stop evaporation of the
solvent from the surface of the paper.
5. When the solvent has moved up the paper to about 1 cm from the
top, remove the paper from the beaker and draw a pencil line to show
where the solvent got to. The highest level of the solvent on the paper
at any time is called the solvent front.
6. Leave the paper to dry so that all the solvent evaporates.
For the solvent you can use water or a non-aqueous solvent (a solvent
other than water). Which solvent you use depends on what substances
are present in the mixture. A suitable solvent is usually found by
experimenting with different ones.
KEY POINT
The dyes that make up the mixture will be different in two important ways:
If the dye does not move from the
◾ the affinity they have for the paper (how well they ‘stick’ to the paper)
pencil line during an experiment, then
the dye is not at all soluble in the ◾ how soluble they are in the solvent which moves up the paper.
solvent you are using. In this case, In Figure 2.11 spot C has hardly moved. Either it was not very soluble
you need to find a different solvent. If in the solvent or it has a very high affinity for the paper (or both). On the
the dye moves up the paper with the
other hand, spot A has moved almost as far as the solvent. It must be
solvent front, the dye is too soluble in
that solvent and, again, you have to try
very soluble in the solvent and not have much affinity for the paper. The
a different solvent. pattern you get is called a chromatogram.
20 PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES

watch glass
glass rod
solvent
front
spot A

spot B
beaker

spot C

pencil line ◀ Figure 2.11 Paper

solvent
chromatography
In this example, the mixture must have contained a minimum of three
different dyes. We say a minimum of three dyes because there could be
more – it is possible that one of the spots is made up of two coloured
dyes that by concidence moved the same distance. You could only
confirm this by doing the experiment again with a different solvent.

▲ Figure 2.12 A paper chromatography experiment

USING PAPER CHROMATOGRAPHY IN ANALYSIS

You can use paper chromatography to identify the particular dyes in a mixture.
If you think that your mixture (m) could contain dyes d1, d2, d3 and d4, you
can carry out an experiment to determine this.
A pencil line is drawn on a larger sheet of paper and pencil marks are drawn
along the line to show the original positions of the various dyes placed on the
line (see Figure 2.13). One spot is your unknown mixture; the others are single,
known dyes. The chromatogram is then allowed to develop as before.

solvent front

y
x

pencil line
m d1 d2 d3 d4

▲ Figure 2.13 Paper chromatography can be used to analyse a mixture.

PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES 21

The mixture (m) has spots corresponding to dyes d1, d3 and d4. They have
the same colour as spots in the mixture, and have travelled the same distance
on the paper. Although dye d2 is the same colour as one of the spots in
the mixture, it has travelled a different distance and so must be a different
compound.
Instead of just saying the spots move different distances we can use the Rf
value to describe how far the spots move. Rf stands for retardation factor.
Each time we do a chromatography experiment the solvent (and therefore
the spots) will move different distances along the paper. This means we can’t
just report the distance moved by a particular spot so we have to work out a
ratio instead.
distance moved by a spot (from the pencil line)
Rf = ___________________________________________________
distance moved by the solvent front (from the pencil line)
x
In Figure 2.13 Rf = __.
y
So in Figure 2.13 the Rf value for dye d3 is:
2.9 cm
HINT
Rf = ______ = 0.81
3.6 cm
Measure to the centre of the spot.
The Rf values of the dyes in mixture m are:
0.9
blue spot: Rf = ___ = 0.25
3.6
2.0
orange spot: Rf = ___ = 0.56
3.6
2.9
green spot: Rf = ___ = 0.81
3.6
The Rf values of dyes d1 to d4 are:
d1: Rf = 0.56
d2: Rf = 0.36
d3: Rf = 0.81
d4: Rf = 0.25
Because the spots in mixture m have the same Rf values as d1, d3 and d4, we
can conclude that the mixture contains these dyes.
An Rf value must be between 0 and 1. If you get a number bigger than 1 you
have probably divided the numbers the wrong way round. An Rf value has
no units.
You have to be careful when using Rf values as they depend on the solvent
used and on the type of paper. There was no problem in the experiment
described above because the mixture and the individual dyes were all put
on the same piece of paper. However, if the mixture was put on one piece of
chromatography paper and the individual dyes on a separate piece, you can
still compare Rf values as long as you use the same type of paper and the
same solvent.
22 PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES

CHAPTER QUESTIONS

SKILLS CRITICAL THINKING 6 1 Classify each of the following substances as an element, compound or
mixture:
sea water hydrogen honey
magnesium oxide copper(II) sulfate blood
calcium mud potassium iodide solution

SKILLS ANALYSIS 2 Look at the diagrams below and classify each one as an element,
compound or mixture.
a b H H O
H H H H
H H O
H H H H
O
O H H H H
H H H H

c d

e H H f
H
H C H H C H
H C H
H H H
H
H
H C H H C H
H H

SKILLS REASONING, 5 3 A teacher has found two white powders on a desk in the chemistry
PROBLEM SOLVING
laboratory. She wants to test to see if they are pure substances, so she
measures the melting points. Substance X melts at 122 °C and substance Y
melts between 87 and 93 °C. Explain which one is the pure substance.

SKILLS DECISION MAKING 6 4 State which separation method you would use to carry out the following
separations:
a Potassium iodide from a potassium iodide solution.
b Water from a potassium iodide solution.
c Ethanol from a mixture of ethanol and water.
d Red dye from a mixture of red and blue dyes.
e Calcium carbonate (insoluble in water) from a mixture of calcium
carbonate and water.

SKILLS CREATIVITY, 5 5 Suppose you had a valuable collection of small diamonds, which you
DECISION MAKING
kept safe from thieves by mixing them with white sugar crystals. You store
the mixture in a jar labelled ‘sugar’. Now you want to sell the diamonds.
Describe how you would separate all the diamonds from the sugar.
PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES 23

SKILLS ANALYSIS 5 6 In order to identify the writer of an anonymous letter, a sample of ink
from the letter was dissolved in a solvent and then placed on some
chromatography paper. Spots of ink from the pens of five possible writers,
G, M, P, R and T, were placed next to the sample on the chromatography
paper. The final chromatogram looked like this:

solvent front

letter G M P R T

a Which of the five writers is using ink that matches the sample from the
letter?
b Which of the writers is using a pen that contains ink made from a single
dye?
SKILLS PROBLEM SOLVING 6 c What is the Rf value of the blue dye in suspect P’s pen?

SKILLS ANALYSIS 5 d Which two of the five writers are using pens containing the same ink?
6 e Whose pen contained the dye that was most soluble in the solvent?